The Little Nyonya Cuisine @ Pavilion

This restaurant reportedly has 3 outlets in Penang before venturing out of Penang to open its first outlet in KL...The Little Nyonya Cuisine @ Pavilion.  As you approach the restaurant, you'll be confronted with a cut up of Axian (Jason Yeoh) who happens to be the shop ambassador.

 

The décor of the place does have a traditional nyonya feel to it with its colourful ceiling, patterned floor tiles, marble tables and colourful wooden chairs.  I would soon find out that the design and décor of the place would end up to be the only things I would be impressed with.

We started with their Pie Tee @ RM7.50 (for 5 pcs) since it's a dish that's synonymous with nyonya food.  When the dish arrived, I was surprised at how tiny the pie tee cups were (RM1.50 a pop isn't exactly cheap).  The pie tee shells were just on the verge of being crispy but the filling (of julienned jicama and carrots topped with fried shallots and sesame seeds) was a bit scarce (you can see that it wasn't quite filled to the brim)....and there wasn't any chilli sauce in sight.  When I asked, the waiter said that it's in the pie tee already. 

Upon closer inspection, I realised that they had drizzled the chilli sauce into the pie tee shells...and, obviously, the drizzling wasn't quite even (with most of it landing inside one of the pie tie shells)!  Why couldn't they just serve the chilli sauce by the side and let us deal with how much chilli we want to put in >:(

 

Another signature dish of theirs is the Deep Fried Otak Bean Curd @ RM11.50 made up of 10 cubes of fried bean curd stuffed with an otak-otak filling.

 

The light coating on the bean curd cubes yielded a crispy exterior but it was the otak-otak filling that we weren't so ecstatic about.  It was unlike any of the otak-otak flavours we have come to love.  The mushy otak-otak filling and the bland soft bean curd didn't create a very pleasant texture.  It was mush on mush!

 

I went with a simple main of Nasi Lemak Special @ RM10.50 which came with a fried chicken drumstick and the usual condiments of half a hard-boiled egg, "ikan bilis" (dried anchovies), peanuts, cucumber, papadum and sambal.

The fried chicken had a decent enough flavour although the skin wasn't as crispy as I had hoped.  I wasn't liking the slightly mushy rice though which didn't have much of the coconut milk taste but instead had a strong lemongrass flavour going through it.

As for the sambal, it wasn't just plain sambal but had ikan bilis in it.  The taste was more savoury than sweet which I appreciated.

 

The other main we had was the Tom Yam Fried Rice with Pandan Chicken @ RM12.50 with three tiny pieces of pandan chicken, a fried egg (that was fried to death), papadum and a fresh sambal.  The rice was fried with corn, carrot and peas (those frozen type, I think), prawns, egg and shredded kaffir lime leaves.  It was just passable as it was a bit lacking in tom yam taste.

The pandan chicken wasn't anything close to those you'd find in Thai eateries.

The White House White Coffee @ RM4.60 (that was what was stated in the menu) didn't meet my expectations either....it was more like a "White House...Down"! :p

My Personal Opinion

Based on the fairly affordable prices (seeing this is a shopping mall), it would appeal to the office workers in the vicinity as a quick lunch but certainly not good enough for those looking for some good nyonya food.

 

They're probably leveraging on the name (and pull) of Axian (Jason Yeoh) who is the shop ambassador (I think he may just regret endorsing this place).  I was surprised to find the place rather quiet though for a weekend service. 

 

Okay-lah, maybe some of my choices wouldn't exactly qualify as nyonya food but the little I had wasn't good enough to entice me back to try more! ;)

The Little Nyonya Cuisine
Lot 1.59.00 - 1.66.00 Level 1
Pavilion Kuala Lumpur
168 Jalan Bukit Bintang
55100 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 03-2110 5546